Dhingana, the Indian music streaming startup battling to stay alive for past few months, has finally shutdown.

We have been trying to speak with Dhingana CEO Rohit Bhatia for past few weeks, but he’s been requesting more time for bringing clarity on the startup’s future. Dhingana is among the top-funded music startups in India. It raised $7 million in Series B funding in October last year from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and Helion Venture Partners.
Dhingana’s website is now showing this goodbye message:

Goodbye!
We hope that you enjoyed listening to Dhingana as much as we enjoyed building it.
But alas, all good things must come to an end.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for letting us be a part of your musical moments!
- The Dhingana Team

Dhingana started facing a crisis when its biggest partner — T Series — said it will not renew the agreement. T-Series president Neeraj Kalyan had confirmed to TechCrunch, that the company will not renew the license set to expire for nearly 8,000 songs from Dhingana’s catalogue. Until then, Dhingana’s CEO had said discussions were on for exploring the road ahead, and it all looked like a near-death experience. But it’s all over now for Dhingana.Meanwhile, Dhingana’s shutdown underscores some of the existential questions faced by startups in India’s online music, entertainment space. Curbing piracy and ensuring a healthier ecosystem where music labels and streaming services working more closely can help, but it might take longer, and Dhingana could not wait that long.